Meng Qianzi had already braced herself for his anger, but instead he tore the jade pendant from his waist with irritation and flung it hard at her. “Get out!”
Meng Qianzi’s heart leapt with joy. She caught the pendant deftly and turned to slip away at once.
The whole sequence flowed like water, smooth as could be, as if she could not wait to get as far from him as possible.
Xiao Jiuyi’s right hand had not yet come back down. He stood frozen for a moment before lowering it, watching the half-worn hem of her robe sweep quickly past the threshold and vanish, a vein twitching faintly at his temple.
This girl really was… utterly without regard for rank!
He nearly blurted out an order for her to come back.
Listening to the light, hurried footsteps fade into the distance, Xiao Jiuyi picked up a piece of pastry without thinking and put it in his mouth. The sweetness of the date-paste cake filled his mouth, and he suddenly felt his mood lift, if only a little.
Fine. Next time she pulled something like that, he would make sure she learned what proper conduct meant….
Meng Qianzi clutched Xiao Jiuyi’s jade pendant tightly and hurried toward Yufu Palace, head down.
“Stop right there. Which palace’s maid are you?”
A sharp voice rang out from across the way.
Meng Qianzi looked up and saw a woman with high cheekbones and a sharp, mean face, small in stature, standing beneath the tall palace wall, watching her with unfriendly eyes like an old turtledove.
This woman wore a fine, sapphire-blue brocade gown, its collar embroidered with clusters of golden chrysanthemums in silver thread, clearly no one of low standing.
The face looked familiar to her, and it came back to her quickly: this was Nanny Xiangyun, the Empress Dowager’s most trusted attendant.
At the time, she had privately mocked in her heart that such a fierce person was wasted on a name like that.
Once she recognized the woman, her heart lurched violently.
The woman seemed to be coming from the direction of Yufu Palace.
A terrifying thought suddenly occurred to her, what if this matter was ordered by the Empress Dowager herself…
Meng Qianzi did not dare think any further, afraid she would overthink herself into hesitation.
She quickly bowed and answered, “This servant is sent by Little Prince Yong on an errand, to deliver something to the Elder Princess.”
“You’re from Prince Yong’s residence? Why have I never seen you before?”
Nanny Xiangyun’s eyes were thick with suspicion.
Meng Qianzi kept her head lowered and answered, “This is this servant’s first time entering the palace with His Highness…”
“You’re lying!”
Nanny Xiangyun suddenly strode forward, seized her arm, and snapped harshly:
“Every servant in His Highness’s residence is personally chosen by Her Majesty the Empress Dowager and trained under me before being sent there. Who exactly are you?”
A thin sheen of cold sweat broke out on Meng Qianzi’s palms, but she did not dare hesitate for even a moment, and answered, “This servant was sent to His Highness’s residence by the Elder Princess. It’s only been a few days.”
As she spoke, she opened her palm to reveal Xiao Jiuyi’s jade pendant. “Please look, Nanny. His Highness told this servant to deliver this to the Elder Princess.”
Nanny Xiangyun recognized at a glance that this truly was Xiao Jiuyi’s belonging, the four-clawed dragon pattern on the pendant was something no one but a prince or an imperial son dared use, but she pressed on with her questioning:
“Why would His Highness have you deliver something he carries on his own person to the Elder Princess?”
Meng Qianzi shook her head and said meekly, “This servant does not know.”
“Hmph.”
Nanny Xiangyun gave a light snort, released the arm she had been gripping, and scolded her sharply. “Walking about the palace in such a rushed, unruly manner, you truly have no sense of proper conduct!”
Meng Qianzi put on a show of humility and murmured her agreement again and again, and only then did Nanny Xiangyun let her go.
Under the woman’s watchful eye, Meng Qianzi walked off at an unhurried pace, imitating the gait of a palace maid, silently grateful she had altered her appearance, otherwise, had the woman noticed her resemblance to her aunt, she would never have let her go so easily.
Once she had rounded an artificial hill and passed out of the woman’s sight, she quickly took stock of her surroundings, picked out the tallest elm tree, drew breath, and scrambled swiftly up.
From up high, looking out in every direction, the whole of Yufu Palace, inside and out, lay spread before her eyes.
The reigning Emperor was not a man given to lust, and his harem was small, leaving a number of palaces standing empty, Yufu Palace was one of them.
Right now Yufu Palace was completely empty, with not the slightest sign that anything was about to happen.
Meng Qianzi prayed in her heart that this matter would not go differently from how she remembered.
She scanned her surroundings anxiously without pause, and time seemed to stretch unbearably long…
After a long while, an upright figure came into view, hurrying toward Yufu Palace, glancing around on every side as he walked.
Meng Qianzi pressed her palms together. Heaven had eyes, her plan had not gone to waste.
The man reached the side gate of Yufu Palace and, after a moment’s hesitation, stepped inside.
Meng Qianzi slid down the elm tree in a flash and crept quickly and silently over.
The man had just raised his hand to push a door open when a hand reached out and caught his wrist firmly.
He started badly and turned his head sharply to look.
Meng Qianzi’s expression was grave. She shook her head at him and dropped her voice to a bare whisper. “Master Consort, you mustn’t go in!”
The man was none other than the Elder Princess’s husband, Consort Jiang Yan.
Meng Qianzi had no time to explain, and simply opened her palm to show him Xiao Jiuyi’s jade pendant.
The tension in Jiang Yan’s face visibly eased at the sight of the pendant.
Meng Qianzi motioned for him to follow her, and led him into a corner room within Yufu Palace.
She dropped her voice and spoke quickly. “This servant doesn’t know why you’ve come here, but whatever the reason, you must not go into that room!”
Jiang Yan’s face was full of confusion, his handsome brows drawing together. “Why not?”
Meng Qianzi suddenly understood a little better why the Elder Princess had fallen so deeply in love with the man before her.
Although nearing fifty, the man still stood tall and elegant as jade, and even now, what he said came out unhurried and gentle, warm as a spring breeze.
His plain moon-white silk robe, paired with his air of being untouched by the world, made him truly a man like jade among the fields, a gentleman without equal in the world.
Only a hundred-year-old great clan like the Jiang family of Huainan could have raised a man like this.
Moreover, his reputation had always been spotless. Although the Elder Princess could not bear children, he had never once strayed, nor had he ever taken a concubine.
Whether he truly was as upright and refined as he seemed, or whether it was all a mask, perhaps he really had come here today to meet someone in secret, who could say… but that did not matter now.
Meng Qianzi answered, “This servant only knows that if you go in there, you will not live to see the end of today!”
Jiang Yan’s dark pupils contracted slightly, and he looked at her right hand, holding the jade pendant. “Did Jingrui send you?”
Jingrui?
Meng Qianzi understood at once that Jingrui must be Xiao Jiuyi’s courtesy name, matching the same auspicious meaning as “Jiuyi” and the character “Yong.”
She nodded. “Please wait here for now, and you’ll know soon enough what’s happening. This servant will be back shortly.”
Jiang Yan hesitated for a moment, but in the end chose to trust her.
He had already had his doubts about being summoned here, and now, thinking it over, an uneasy feeling rose in his heart as well.
He watched Meng Qianzi tear off a strip of cloth, soak it in the lotus pond, and tie it over her face, then hurry to the room, push the door open, and go inside.
The room was filled with a faint haze of smoke. Meng Qianzi’s eyes fell at once on the crescent-moon table beneath the closed window, where a stick of incense as thick as a little finger was burning.
On the chaise nearby lay a woman, her clothes in disarray, her mind clouded.
The woman looked as though she could not bear some unbearable heat, her once-elaborate skirts torn and scattered by her own hands, her breasts half exposed.
The bared skin had taken on a strange pink flush, her autumn-water eyes half open, half closed, her red lips glazed with an enticing sheen of moisture…
Seeing this, was there anything left for Meng Qianzi not to understand?
She went at once to the canopy bed, shook out the quilt, stuffed every soft cushion in the room into it, then turned and gathered up the woman, who had gone as soft as a puddle of water.
There was no time to fix the woman’s tangled hair. She could only pull the woman’s outer robe tightly closed to cover the skin that should not be shown, then hurried across the courtyard and into the corner room.
Jiang Yan looked in shock at the woman in her arms, fine beads of sweat breaking out across his smooth forehead…
This woman was clearly one of those who had come into the palace today to wish the Empress Dowager a happy birthday, though he had no idea whose daughter she was.
If he had walked in a moment ago and seen this scene… how could it possibly have ended well?